Harry and Meghan’s next trip

But first, let’s talk about the reaction to the PEOPLE Magazine cover story this week featuring five of Meghan Markle’s friends defending her anonymously. When I wrote about this on Tuesday,at the end of that post, I noted that “British press will probably not react well to it. They’re already pissy about not getting enough access. Finding out that Meghan’s friends have spoken exclusively to shut down their reporting in America will only make them thirstier for blood. And it’s not like they’re above getting dirty.” It’s Friday today. Usually Thomas Markle likes to throw down a dump on Sundays. Will be interesting to see if we’ll be hearing from him this weekend via Piers Morgan or the Sun or the Daily Mail.

Speaking of the Daily Mail, Richard Kay’slatest columnpublished yesterday addresses the consequences of Meghan’s PEOPLE feature. The upside, as we know, is that she’s directly, through her friends and colleagues, refuting the claims made against her by her rogue relatives, the British press, and those shady courtiers. The downside, in their minds, is that by doing this she’s fueling the fire, extending the battle. He compares Meghan’s latest move to Diana’s playbook, recounting how Diana too had her friends stick up for her, and she too used the media to get out her message. Diana came to regret a few of her decisions and Richard seems to be warning Meghan that she might regret hers. I get what he’s trying to say but… it’s a new world now, and in this new world, some of the old sh-t isn’t going to fly. As Jackson Maine once said, “Maybe it’s time to let the old ways die”. (LOLOLOL sorry, I’m almost done.) For months I’ve been telling you that Royal Meghan was trained in Hollywood. The courtiers and the British tabloids haven’t been up against someone with her experience as a member of their royal family before, someone who understands PR gameplay and who isn’t afraid to play the game. Perhaps that was the ultimate message: game on, I can stay out here for longer than you imagine, and already I’ve surprised you. Whatever the case may be, the British press is predictably pissed that they’re getting scooped and those courtiers have another reason to keep their hate fires alive. This sh-t is going to keep us busy for a while.

One more thing – yesterday I posted about Serena Williams “sipping tea” on Twitter. She ended up posting the same shot on her Instagram story and there’s a detail that didn’t show up on Twitter:

Whatever she was saying, or whatever tea she was spilling, was being recorded. Is this more evidence that this picture was indeed about Meghan and that she was one of the friends who spoke to PEOPLE?

And finally, Kensington Palace made this announcement today:

So they’re going on tour again, working right up until as close as she can to her delivery date. Get ready for 48 hours of exhaustive Moroccan belly-cupping. And obviously she’s not too far in her pregnancy that weekend where she can’t travel. That also happens to be Oscar weekend and the travel I’ve been Gossip Genie-ing was Harry and Meghan would show up to present because it was a possibility last year. That’s not happening then, I guess. Although, ha, somehow they’ve found a way to make it onto our site on Oscar Monday. Our site on Monday, February 25 is going to be HEAVY with Oscar coverage and Sussex coverage. Please be prepared to read all our posts!

Attached - more shots of Meghan and Harry last night in London.